People can make better choices when it benefits others
Learning to avoid harm to others recruits the social brain, improves decision-making

Date:
August 24, 2020
Source:
Society for Neuroscience
Summary:
People are better at learning and decision-making when trying to
avoid harm to others, according to new research.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== People are better at learning and decision-making when trying to avoid
harm to others, according to new research published in JNeurosci.


========================================================================== Humans are often motivated by self-interest. Participants in one study,
for example, learned a game faster when they earned money for themselves
as opposed to another person. However, this pattern changes when physical
harm enters the equation.

Lengersdorff et al. investigated how effectively people learn to avoid
harm to themselves and others. While in an fMRI scanner, participants
played an electric shock game. They chose between two abstract symbols:
one had a high chance of delivering a non-painful electrical shock while
the other had a low chance of delivering a painful shock. Computational modeling revealed that the participants were better at making optimal
choices -- resulting in the least amount of pain -- when they chose for
another person, rather than themselves.

This could be explained by an increased sensitivity to the value of one
choice over another.

People most intent on avoiding shock showed increased activation in
the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), a brain area implicated in evaluating decisions. Choosing for another person was also associated with synchronized activity between the VMPFC and the temporoparietal junction,
a region implicated in assessing the emotional states of others. This
implies that other-related learning and decision-making stems from collaboration between the neural valuation system and the social brain.

Manuscript title: When Implicit Prosociality Trumps Selfishness: The
Neural Valuation System Underpins More Optimal Choices When Learning To
Avoid Harm To Others Than To Oneself

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Society_for_Neuroscience. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Lukas L. Lengersdorff, Isabella C. Wagner, Patricia L. Lockwood,
Claus
Lamm. When implicit prosociality trumps selfishness: the neural
valuation system underpins more optimal choices when learning to
avoid harm to others than to oneself. The Journal of Neuroscience,
2020; JN-RM-0842-20 DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0842-20.2020 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200824131811.htm

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